Pietro Bertelli, Courtesan and Blind Cupid (Flap print with liftable skirt), c. 1588, engraving and etching, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1955
Selected Works
Profane Love
Courtesan and Blind Cupid
(Flap print with liftable skirt)
Venice was famed for its legions of elaborately clad and coiffed courtesans. Foreign visitors marveled at their opulent jewels and abundant application of cosmetics, while civic authorities decried the courtesans' deliberately misleading resemblance to "honest women." Capitalizing on their titillating popularity, Pietro Bertelli published a series of prints of courtesans, each with a flap that lifted to reveal, below a seemingly innocent exterior, a glimpse of the carnal pleasures for which Venice was notorious. Here, the flap is the skirt, which can be raised to display the courtesan's undergarments and chopines (the platform shoes that Venetian ladies wore to keep their feet dry).
